The latest example of mass-hacking occurred this weekend and impacted tens of thousands of businesses, hospitals, and agencies. The type of attack is described as ‘ransomware’ because it essentially holds a system or network hostage seeking a ransom payment for release. Ransomware often utilizes trojan viruses that are disguised as a seemingly safe program. The intent of the virus is to take advantage of users who unwittingly download a program including the virus and flashes a warning page informing the user that their computer has been locked and they must pay a fee to unlock it.

These are some examples of what a ransomware warning looks like:

It is important to remember not to download something that seems suspicious and always back up your data.